The present invention relates to a clothes washing machine which is so designed as to allow it to be most quickly and simply converted into a combined clothes washing and drying machine.
Current clothes washing machines are specifically designed to perform washing programs required for different types of fabrics and washloads. Most of these programs include prewash, primary wash and several rinse cycles, possibly followed by a final spin extraction operation in order to remove the greatest possible quantity of wash and rinse water from the washload before putting it to dry.
In particular, drying can take place in special drying machines or in combined clothes washing and drying machines of traditional design, using the most appropriate drying programs available according to the type of fabrics to be handled.
As a result, the operation of washing and drying clothes makes it necessary to have either two separate machines for such purposes, i.e. a washing machine and a drying machine, or a single combined washing and drying machine. Known combined machines however have proven to be quite complicated in both design and construction.